The Doctor
by watashi wa kyo2
Summary: Set during 2x5: 'The Doctor'. This just fills in the gaps for what happened to Victor before and after Regina found him. How did he exactly get into the situation of Daniel ripping his arm off anyway? Rated T for slight (and I mean slight) gore.


AN: This is one of my favorite episodes of Once Upon a Time and I just wanted to see this episode from Victor's POV. I do plan on writing more about Storybrooke's resident doctor :)

**Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time, if I did FrankenWolf would be canon by now. **

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One would think sneaking a body into a hospital wouldn't be that difficult. Just pretend you need their organs for some transplant, or that they are some dead person from another room and just need to be taken to the morgue, right? Well that was not the case when you lived in a town where everybody knew everybody and would notice if someone they had never seen in the little town called Storybrooke before came rolling into the hospital. Considering no one ever visited the town from outside, the only exception being Emma, it was a sure plan of getting caught and Victor had no plans of being caught.

The night before all this body snatching he had placed a gurney near the back door to the hospital so moving Daniel's body would be easier and less conspicuous. Nothing screams "Look at what I am doing!" like dragging a dead body through the halls. All Victor had to do was wrap Daniel's face in bandages coated with a little bit of blood to make it seem like a more realistic wound and roll him down to the laboratory where everything was set up.

He had worked on the machines required for this little experiment ever since they had all got their memories back. He needed to return to his world, and since Regina was obviously not so willing to do so he would require some sort of bribing material. That was when it hit him. There was no way Regina had left her beloved Daniel behind in the Enchanted Forest. No, he had to be here in Storybrooke somewhere, along with the vault of hearts. Leaving that behind would probably have had some dire consequences if it landed in the wrong hands. And thus, it had all come together. Now all he had to do was perform the operation successfully and he could return to his brother.

Victor had planned for it to take place somewhat early to limit the chance of him being discovered. Eight o'clock wasn't too early that it would be suspicious of him coming in, plus half the town would have either just finished breakfast or just arrived at work, also limiting the chance of some sort of medical emergency that he would have to attend to.

He placed the gurney in the center of the room. He then tested his machine to ensure it would still work. Everything was ready now, all he had to do was take off the bandages on Daniel's face, hook him up to the machine, cut him open, replace Daniel's heart with the one he took from Regina's vault, and push the button. Easy peasy. It took only minutes for Victor to accomplish the first two tasks, but oddly enough it was on the third one that he hesitated. He didn't understand why. He was a scientist, the only way to continue moving was to take risks and learn from them. Besides, he had done it before and he did it all the time. Incisions were no problem, no problem at all.

The grain of fear that had taken resident in his head, the one that was whispering of what ifs and possibilities, Victor shoved to the back of his mind and went in for the removal of the heart. His hands did not shake as he pulled it from Daniel's body nor did they shake when he put the beating heart in. After reattaching the heart and sewing Daniel up Victor knew it was now or never. His hand hovered over the button for only a moment right before he pushed it and watched with a sick satisfaction as Daniel's body jerked and jerked due to the volts of electricity going through him at the moment. Although Victor was shielding his eyes from the bright sparks, he still could not drag his gaze away from that lifeless thing seizing on the gurney. He was so entranced he didn't even notice when one of the lights above him broke off from the ceiling by some of the stray electrical pulses that had snuck their way into the electrical wiring in the walls and to the ceiling.

When the machine finally cut off, it had only been around 45 seconds, but to Victor it had felt like a lifetime. Maybe it was because so much depended on this working. All his planning, all his work would be entirely worthless if this didn't work. The silence was deafening as Victor slowly walked to where Daniel lay. It was only when a low moan came from the once dead man that Victor released the breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"I did it," he breathed out. A surge of happiness and triumph shot through his heart. Daniel continued to moan a bit more. Eventually he started to move his limbs too before his eyes opened and landed on the doctor.

"Daniel, can you hear me? My name is..uh... Dr. Whale. I am here to help you. Can you understand me?" Victor asked.

Daniel looked at him oddly before glancing down at his self and the stitches on his chest. Something about them must have made him upset because when he looked back up at Victor all semblance of humanity had left his eyes, only darkness and madness remained. Victor took a step back.

"Daniel?"

He didn't expect him to move so fast, not with the experiment only preceding this by minutes. Daniel sat up and slid off the gurney, standing on his own two feet for the first time in over two decades. That empty look in his eyes had Victor worried, worried enough that he raised his arms up in a 'I mean you no harm' gesture. Apparently it was the wrong move to do because Daniel lunged at him grabbing both his arms, trying to overpower the doctor. Victor struggled against him but Daniel had what felt like inhuman strength. It seemed, however great his strength was, his motor skills were not quite up to par yet because while he let go of Victor's right arm, in favor of attempting to push Victor out of his way instead his other hand didn't comply so well. His fingers would not release their iron grip on the doctor's left arm, so when Daniel shoved Victor with all his might, it was also with all his might that he pulled Victor's left arm.

Victor was sure that the ripping sound of flesh and bone breaking off from one another was a lovely sound but he couldn't hear it over the sound of his own scream and the ever ringing in his ears. He couldn't remember for the life of him what happened for the next moments. All he knew was that when he finally snapped out of his stupor Daniel was gone...and so was his arm. Blood was pooling out all around him. He could feel its wet warmness caressing his body while its coppery smell permeated the air.

'I have got to stop it from bleeding,' he though somewhat confusingly. His eyes kept trying to close but he was able to locate the gauze that had been wrapped around Daniel's head before the procedure. His right arm could reach it, and once grabbed, Victor tried to bandage up his arm, or what was left of it. His attempts helped a little as they did at least provide some sort of aid to the clotting of the blood, but barely. The world faded out of view shortly after he made his sorry excuse for a band-aid.

Victor didn't know how he had been out before his brain picked up the distinctive sound of Regina's voice shouting something nearby. It took all his strength but he managed to open his eyes. The blurry form of the evil queen appeared in front of him. He couldn't quite catch what she was saying, only getting one word: Daniel. The drumming in his ears was becoming louder. He closed his eyes and winced as his brain finally computed what she was saying.

"Did you bring him back?"

'Breathe Victor, breathe.' he thought silently to himself before mustering up the energy to speak.

"I did it."

'Breathe. Ignore the pain.'

"He's alive?"

"Yes, I did it...but he's not Daniel."

"What?"

"He's a monster."

The look of shock on Regina's face would have been enjoyable if he hadn't been bleeding out on the cold, hard floor. He should consider himself lucky that Regina hadn't only allowed the shock last for very little time before she ran out and got some of the medical staff to help him. The rest was a blur of pain and agony.

He vaguely remembers being put on a different gurney and being rolled to the elevator to go to ICU all the while nurses were pulling off the gauze and cleaning the wound as best as they could before bandaging it quickly. They had to keep applying pressure and replacing gauze to stop the bleeding. It was rather excruciating for Victor, so much so that he might have passed out somewhere in there.

The next time he woke up his brain felt like it was packed full of cotton. Thinking seemed to be so very slow, like watching a movie in slow motion, with the weird deep sounding voices. There was also an annoying beeping noise close by that wouldn't stop.

He felt so uncomfortable, the feeling that everyone gets when they lay in one position for too long. He moved to stretch, spreading out the fingers on both his hands to their full extent. Something wasn't right. He felt a twinge of pain in his left arm but if it was bone or muscle it should hurt worse when he moved his fingers or twisted his wrist around, but it didn't. Forcing his eyes open to find the reason for this conundrum Victor froze when he saw the empty space where his left arm should have been. Then it all came back with stunning clarity. The experiment, Daniel ripping his arm off, and Regina saving him. The images were so vivid that he felt like he was back in those moments. Victor should have noticed the increased tempo of the beeping noise, or the feel of someone saying "Dr. Whale" loudly in his ears.

When he did take all these external noises into account it was too late. The darkness was already closing in, enveloping Victor in the bliss of no pain and no worries. Two hours later he again awoke, but this instance he was aware that his arm was gone, despite that phantom sensations he was experiencing from where it should have been. His eyes peaked open to see if anyone was around. One nurse was but he was a patient man and waited until she had left before reopening them and sitting up. He stared down at his missing appendage while theories and ideas popped up in his head on how to fix it. But with each new idea they became more and more far fetched. It wasn't as easy as a finger tip or an ear. This was his arm. A word kept slithering through his thoughts but he tried his best to ignore it until it became the only option.

_Magic. _

Mr. Gold could probably reattach it. It would cost a high price but he could handle it..hopefully. How could he continue his work if he only had one arm? He needed his other arm if only to hold the coffee mug while he worked into the early hours of the morning on research or even just paperwork. These thoughts kept swirling around. Victor was convinced, he had to go to Mr. Gold and ask for help.

Now that it was settled Victor set up slowly and methodically shut off all the machines that were monitoring him and pulled out the needle that was administering the pain killers. Lucky for him they had placed his clothes on the bed next to his because although they hadn't put him in one of those horrible dresses it wouldn't do for him to walk around town with no shirt on.

Getting the shirt on wasn't that hard, he couldn't really feel his arm stump, nor was putting on his jacket, locating his arm, however, was another story. He had to sneak around quite a but before he was able to find it in one of the organ freezers that were never really used. They even had it in a cooler for good measure. Victor grabbed it and proceeded to make his way out of the hospital. By the time he was halfway to Gold's he could tell the pain killers were beginning to wear off. It would take all his concentration to keep his composure and not cry out when he had to show his arm to Gold.

It hurt worse to say he needed magic.

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Please Review ;)

I hope you enjoyed it.


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